


The Miracle Ring

by ecrituredudesir



Category: Furry (Fandom)
Genre: 'stolen' pregnancy, C-Section, Cesarean Section, Extreme Pregnancy, Female Pregnancy, M/M, Male Breast Feeding, Male Lactation, Male Pregnancy, Mpreg, Older Characters, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Kink, Pregnant Sex, furry pregnancy, magic pregnancy, rapid pregnancy, unrealistic depictions of pregnancy and delivery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 20:06:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18999601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ecrituredudesir/pseuds/ecrituredudesir
Summary: When Gregory the Hippo takes a trip to a mysterious hole-in-the-wall shop, the shop owner leaves him with a ring that supposedly can make his wildest dreams come true--and all he and his friend Joseph the Elephant have ever wanted was to experience the miracle of pregnancy, regardless of if the children are their own species or not.A commission for someone on furaffinity.





	The Miracle Ring

When he woke in the morning, Gregory enjoyed the fact that he had quite a bit of space to himself in his ranch-style home, because it gave him the liberty to roam from his shower into his large kitchen to make himself breakfast. However, the 70 year old hippo realized that day, as he had many days before, that the single life had a single downfall, too: despite his attempts in the past, he was woefully, and heart breakingly lonely in the absence of children that he had always wanted. It was a passing thought to the start of his day, which was supposedly going to be uneventful. He would do some shopping downtown, and perhaps call Bobby, his friend of several years now. The two kept in close contact, often chatting about their respective days and on some more risky or tipsy conversation, going over the small secrets they kept from the rest of their social circles. At their age, a mutual pregnancy fetish might have been seen as a bit… odd, but Bobby, an anthro elephant about his own age, had never questioned his desires. Both of them, who had always wanted children and to experience the joys of a possible pregnancy, only encouraged those distant dreams between each other.

He left the house that day with the thought of how he’d never been shopping downtown, for all the years he’d been living and working in the town. Though he had driven past and through downtown hundreds of times, he’d never stopped for more than a coffee on the corner shop. Parking in one of the hidden, tucked away lots of the city’s downtown area, he set himself out on a morning walk to look over a variety of the little knick-knack and antique shops. It was from the corner of his eye that he noticed a shop front unlike whatever he’d seen before. Despite driving through the area several times over the last several years, he knew that if it had been there before, his knack for the uncanny would have brought it to his attention before. An odd animal skeleton hung from the window, though he couldn’t tell what kind it was. There were a variety of other oddities, a crystal ball reportedly made out of real crystal from the price tag, and a ouiji board with a real bone planchet. His curiosity was fully enraptured as he stepped into the odd door, his gaze roaming around the shop with his jaw slowly dropping in shock at the variety the place offered.

Still, as his gaze roamed around in that mixture of surprise and interest for the assortments lining the shelves and walls and displays, he was approached by a mysterious woman wearing a loose hip-hugging skirt that hung just under her clearly heavy belly, swollen with what had to at least be octuplets, from Gregory’s almost expert opinion. Her shirt was pulled up over her distended belly, and noticing how his gaze immediately fell to the swell of her belly, she gave a suggestive little smile and et her slender fingers roam over her own tummy. “Would you like to feel? I’m due any day now,” she encouraged.

Immediately taking her up on the offer, he reached out to brush his palm along her gravid stomach, feeling the movement and kicks of the children growing within her. It sent a feeling of pleasure through him, his cheeks flushing pink over his leathery cheeks, feeling the immediate response slide through him, always more than happy to feel and witness the joy of life growing inside someone. With a strange sort of familiarity, she met his gaze as if she could see his every thought right down to his very soul. “You know, I think I have just the thing for you.”

He was taken by surprise at the words, considering he never expected the woman before him to actually be a worker in the shop with how far along she was. But she pulled away from his touch quickly enough, moving away to bustle through the shop until finally she came to an old jewelry case, looking through it before she pulled out a small ring with odd, runic engravings in the band of pure silver. “Oh, I was just looking,” he started, but she tutted and cut him off before he could finish speaking.

“This is at no charge,” she insisted, reaching out to take the same hand that had just recently felt across her swollen belly and popped belly button, placing the ring against his palm before curling his fingers around it for him. “This ring will give you what your heart wants most. Every one of your desires will come true. I promise you that.” She gave a little wink, though he was a little doubtful of some so-called miracle ring, feeling like she was still probably trying to sell him something. Before she could come up with any sales pitch though, she had taken him by the arm, and was gradually pushing him from the shop with a few subtle, ushering gestures.

“Everyone comes here if they need something, and that is what you need, so you no longer need to to be here.” It was a simple insisting, which he might have found rude, had he not been trying to keep himself from stumbling into the alleyway he’d noticed the storefront in in the first place.

“Now hold on just a minute-” Gregory started, turning to give the woman a word of frustration for not getting to look through the shop anymore, but to his shock, the doorway that he’d just stumbled through was completely gone—along with the rest of the woman’s shop as well. There was only a brick wall where it had once been, leaving the poor hippo wondering if he had hallucinated the entire thing… That was, until he looked down to see the ring still pressed in his hand, and he could still feel the tingle of warmth against his palm from where he’d felt along the woman’s pregnant belly. Uncertain and a little weirded out, he could thing of nothing else to do but to try the ring on. It was nearly a perfect fit despite looking small in his hand, but it glistened prettily in the light, the silver shining in the midday light. If all of his dreams were going to come true, then perhaps there was no harm in wearing it.

His shopping trip continued to downtown, wandering past the other shops and still unable to shake the thought of the odd woman from his mind, twirling the ring on his finger until he caught sight of a male pig, clearly heavily swollen with several piglets, in a convenience store that he stopped to grab a drink in. He couldn’t be any older than 55, though Gregory still couldn’t help but find himself just a little envious of the younger man, considering how much trouble he’d had at that age with trying to conceive, with how much he’d wanted children so far. It was always a little embarrassingly arousing to watch the heavy, swollen forms of a pregnant person moving through crowds, their bodies going through all the effort of bringing fresh life into the world. He was reminded of how much he wanted children himself, though to his surprise, he felt a sudden change start to overcome his body. It began at a slow pace, where there was discomfort, initially. As slow as it was, it was noticeable how his chest became tender, aching as if they had been twisted and squeezed. Just beneath, he felt an odd shifting in the pit of his belly before the pressure started, and he felt the sensation of swelling as little by little, his stomach started to grow. His expert opinion on the pig had told him that he was likely carrying sextuplets, but before his eyes, as his own stomach grew, the pig’s started to deflate slowly. The other anthro didn’t respond to the sensation at all, and Gregory realized that there was no alarm ore recognition in him that his pregnancy seemed to be fading little by little. He didn’t realize at all.

His own body was still changing rapidly, and he could feel the slow rising weight as he felt six individual piglets start to grow in his belly. It was the full course of a real pregnancy, just sped up exponentially. His belly could hardly handle the rapid swelling, and his shirt felt far too tight to contain it. His fingers shifted to let his shirt rise up just a little, but then the swell of his belly started to push it up all on its own, his pants riding low on his hips as his belly started to bulge over the waistband of his pants. The stretch marks was working through his hairy belly, causing little divots in his skin. When it felt like he was six or seven months pregnant, the growing pressure inside of him was too much to bear any longer, and he felt the skin of his belly button suddenly pop outwards, standing out and firm on his swollen belly. He was trying not to hyperventilate in his shock of everything happening at once, and his body shifting to accommodate a pregnancy that he had never thought possible.

A brief look up to the formerly pregnant pig displayed a much bigger picture. The maternity shirt the man had been wearing was now loose and baggy around his frame, no longer pregnant with the children that Gregory could now only assume might be growing in his stomach instead—instead of showing any sort of alarm or disbelief at this, though, the pig seemed bored at best. Gregory couldn’t fathom how someone could go from being so pregnant to just not caring anymore, not even recognizing that he might have lost his children. By now, the pig’s husband was approaching him, and it Gregory’s shock, the man simply wrapped his hand around his husband’s waist and laughed softly, making a joke about how loose his shirt was. He didn’t seem to notice the lack of pregnancy in the pig either, leaving him shocked into silence as he felt his stomach finally weight heavily downwards, fully distended as his hands roamed down in surprise. They settled wide against belly, feeling the subtle kick and movements going on within him. He could hardly believe the full sensation settling in him, the pregnancy he had always wanted and craved, but in such a situation that he could feel the panic rising within him with each breath.

When he noticed the husband wrap an arm around the pig’s waist and turn to leave with him, that panic boiled over like a bubbling pot, and they were clearly going to leave. “No, no,” he whispered in a rush, wishing desperately that he wasn’t pregnant with the strange, stolen babies any longer. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than this strange magic to be undone, and as if on queue, the ring on his hand glowed with a soft warmth once more—the likes of which he hadn’t noticed when he’d first felt envious of the pig’s pregnancy. Slowly, he felt the movement in his belly cease, and gradually, the size of his stomach starting to sink little by little back to his normal, portly frame. Though part of his instincts registered it as a sad loss, knowing just how much he had always wanted to feel the joys of pregnancy, it soothed the panicked anxiety that had flooded through him. As he watched, the swell of the pig’s stomach started to become noticeable once more under the maternity clothing he’d worn. The pig didn’t seem to notice that his pregnancy was returning rapidly, only pausing in his steps when he felt one of the now full-sized children starting to kick in him once more.

“Oh,” Gregory could overhear the pig remark, coming to a stop as he placed both hands over his stomach, where his children were now worked up and squirming from their temporary trip over into the hippo’s stomach. “They’re moving around so much to day.”

The pig’s partner stopped, giving a little grin as he crouched down, giving his husband's stomach an affectionate rub, leaning to kiss it. “Are you giving your papa a hard time today?” He cooed to the rise of his belly, and the children seemed to kick and squirm within at hearing their other father’s voice, recognizing it from how often he clearly spoke with such soft adoration to the unborn infants. As the last signs of pregnancy finally faded from Gregory’s body, his stomach flattening back to its normal portly curve, he could only look on in awe as the couple moved to leave, clearly unphased by the fact that their children had been missing for those few, brief moments that Gregory had borrowed their pregnancy.

He was practically in shock as he moved into his car, his mind numbed and unable to fully focus on what all had happened in the store. Even as he made his way back home and sank into his favorite chair, it was all hard to process. It’s only when his eyes rested on the ring still on his finger that he realized that it, and the woman’s earlier words in her shop, may have had something to do with the odd and unprecedented occurrence in those borrowed children that had, for however briefly, grown within him. Even now, he could feel the almost phantom sensations of how the little piglets had kicked and squirmed within him, leaving him longing for that sensation once more. The ring glowed briefly at that feeling, but since there was no one within eye sight to borrow children from again, there was no change in his body.

It was in that moment that he knew that he needed to test this strange ring to see if he wasn’t simply hallucinating, and if he might be able to become pregnant once more as he had that day. The possibilities, if so, were endless; he might be able to finally enjoy the pregnancy that he’d always thought possible. The thought was thrilling, and though he was exhausted form the shock of the day, he knew he would have the entire day the next day. He went to sleep with his dreams full of the possibilities of what the day after would bring.

When he woke the following day, he was almost so excited that he nearly skipped breakfast, hastily shoveling something down that he made on the spot. After staying up for nearly an hour the night before planning where he would need to go that day, he had finally decided that a maternity store in the local mall would be his best bet at finding just the right pregnancy for him to test the ring on. Arriving early that morning, there was a skip to his step every time he thought about where he was going or what he was going to be doing. As he finally stepped into into the maternity store, he was astounded by the variety of pregnancies that he had to choose from—but his decision became immediately clear as his eyes laid on a younger anthro horse, who he could tell was several months pregnant with what had to be at least octuplets. Immediately he felt the initial attraction, seeing that hefty belly that the horse was there shopping for clothing to cover, and from the corner of his eye, he could see the horse’s wife picking out a few pretty paternity clothes that would suit him a little better with the size of his body.

To not look too suspicious, Gregory situated himself next to a rack, pretending to sift through a few of the ‘early maternity’ options, considering no one could doubt that he might be in the first few months of a pregnancy with his already softer belly. It kept him from drawing attention as he watched the couple shop, deciding that the horse was his perfect target. Focusing, Gregory allowed himself to think of just how much he envied the horse, wishing that he could also experience the joy of that pregnancy—this time he was watching it, and the ring started to let off a soft glow. He actually noticed the sizable swell of the horse’s stomach start to lower before he felt the effects, but when they started, it was hard to focus on anything else. There came the strange, subtle aches in his chest and ankles the minute that his ‘new’ pregnancy started, compiling the early warning signs of the first few weeks into only a few seconds. He felt a brief flash of nausea hit him, like the early months of morning sickness, but it was fading as quickly as it had arrived, leaving him moving to the corner so he could lift his shirt and watch in one of the changing mirror as his portly, salt and pepper hairy belly started to grow. It was only a little at first, like he’d had a large meal and couldn’t quite keep his pants over his stomach, but he had worn a lose pair that day, hoping his test was successfully.

Little by little his belly began to bulge out against the elastic band of his pants. He watched in admiration as he inhaled, and when he exhaled, his stomach stayed as distended as it had been as when he had breathed in. A glance up to the horse showed that his stomach was over half the size of what it had been to start out with, and to Gregory’s relief, neither the horse nor his wife seemed to realize that he was rapidly losing size. Gregory was letting the shirt slide further up his stomach as his belly began to press out further, and he had to hold his breath so he didn’t groan at the sensation of children gradually growing within him. It was unlike any feeling he could ever think to compare it to, and his free hand not holding up his shirt was now roaming over his belly, brushing through the hair there as he felt the subtle signs of growth and movement in his belly begin. Pulling out his phone, he took a few quick snapshots of his belly at its current, growing size, but that only gave him the motivation he needed to want to do a full photo shoot back in the privacy and safety of his home.

He shivered as he felt the sudden little ‘pop!’ of his belly button as it pressed out from the growing pressure within him, biting the inside of his cheek as he felt the band of his sweatpants slide lower and lower on the roundness of his stomach until he felt it pop down around his hips, no longer able to hold his waist line or his massive belly any longer. His shirt was becoming tight too, despite it being the loosest shirt that he had in his closet. Part of him felt a thrill of excitement as he found himself eyeing the maternity shirts, realizing he would actually need one if he didn’t want to give the children inside of him a chill on the way home. He was growing much more quickly than he anticipated, faster than the day before, but he realized this was likely due to it being an octuplet pregnancy rather than the sextuplets that he had accidentally borrowed from the pig, too. His belly stretched with fine stretch marks working their way down his stomach, to his waist, and along his sides. The horse had to be a few days out from delivery still-- that was the only reason he was comfortable testing the ring with him, considering he didn’t see the risk of going into any immediate delivery while testing the ring. Only when he was fully distended with the borrowed pregnancy did he finally look up to the couple again, with the wife looking over to her formerly pregnant husband with a soft laugh.

“Honey, what are you doing with that shirt? It’s pretty, but it’s way too big for you,” she pointed out, and after a moment, he blinked in surprise and looked down at his own flat stomach, surprised to see his shirt hanging loose around him.

“You know, I’m not...actually sure? I guess it just caught my eye, but you’re right. There’s no need for me to be looking at this when I’m not carrying, right?” He laughed, though the two of them seemed ot have no clue that just moments before, he’d been full of their eight children, now nestled safely in Gregory’s own heavy belly. There was relief in seeing them not freak out, and he realized that without the ring, there was a good possibility that no one would remember what it could do. It was a test he’d have to try later as well, but for now he was running on the giddy high of being pregnant like he’d always dreamed of. Watching as the couple walked out of the maternity store hand and hand, he was taken by surprise as a clerk approached, and complimented him on his form, making a soft remark of how strong he must be to be able to carry so many children at once, then offered to help him find a shirt that suited his pregnant frame. Elated to have the softer treatment that all expecting parents received, he gladly let the clerk help him, trying on a variety of shirts and taking quite a few pictures in his favorite ones in the dressing room, enjoying himself immensely before he settled on one that hugged his belly comfortably without being too tight. Knowing that in the following days he would want to continue to test the ring to see just how far he could take the magic it offered, he purchased a few sets of maternity clothing, including a few maternity pants that were designed to grow and expand with any parent as they progressed through several months of pregnancy.

With his stomach no longer bare, but heavy with the movement of eight babies now kicking and growing within him, he returned home. It was strange to have to adjust the seat of is van to make room for his large belly now, but every little detail caught his attention and elated him, and he could barely wait from the moment he got in the door to strip down in the large mirror in his room to admire the rise to his stomach and the changes to his body. Admiring himself in front of the mirror, completely nude, he took no shortages of pictures of himself to document the appearance of his pregnant body, taking several videos of the subtle movements under the belly bump of the children moving within him. Watching them afterwards, even he could notice the unmasked, pure happiness in his voice as he spoke softly to them. Even if he knew he wasn’t their real father, he got a particular satisfaction of talking in the third person, referring to himself as their ‘daddy,’ cooing gently to them over how active they were, praising them for being so strong even though they hadn’t been born yet.

When his arms were nearly too tired to hold up the camera for any more photography, he finally relaxed on his bed, not bothering to get dressed first. His fingers splayed over the gravid rise to his tummy, realizing that his excitement had shifted from the pure joy he’d been experiencing to something a little more intimate. He knew that hormones were heightened in pregnancy, but even he could feel the stirring of heat deep in the pit of his belly, his happiness starting to fade into a pleased, but warm horniness. He’d always wondered what sex while pregnant would feel like, with it being an interesting aspect of the fantasy of pregnancy he’d always had—and he knew who else felt the same way. It took all of a few seconds for him to pin the feeling of arousal before he was reaching for his phone again, calling a familiar line to his friend Bobby.

Bobby greeted the phone with a bit of confusion at Gregory calling him, since it had been a few months since he’d seen or spoken to the hippo, but Gregory had a hard time masking the heated, low tone in his voice when he asked if he could come over, and that it was urgent that he show him something that minute. Bobby could tell there was something lustful in his voice, but considering he had no other plans that day, he saw no reason not to grant his old friend the request. Despite not seeing each other a bit, they still lived in the same city, and it was less than twenty minutes later that Bobby was pulling into his driveway, helping himself to the door that Gregory had told him he’d leave unlocked for him. Seeing himself into the house, he followed the trail of clothing Gregory had left on his way to the bedroom, and to his surprise, he found Gregory swollen pregnant and waiting on him to arrive, with a bottle of olive oil in one hand that he’d been using to finger himself in the excitement of waiting for his friend to arrive.

Immediately, Bobby was moving forward, his hands spreading over Gregory’s stomach as he explored it with his fingers, admiring the rise of it. He hadn’t expected to find him pregnant, particularly with the fertility problems that he knew they both shared. “You’ve gotten so big since I last saw you,” he murmured, but Gregory knew that there was pure admiration in his voice, not taking offense to it. “How many are you having.”

“My best guess is eight at this point.” Gregory admitted, knowing that he was relying on his own expertise, and that it might have been difficult to tell for anyone even in an ultrasound. It was a vague enough answer to not be suspicious at that point. Bobby gave a soft whistle, impressed that not only had Gregory somehow managed to conceive, he was expecting so many multiples that anyone would have been shocked to know that a doctor had told him he’d be infertile at one point. All while they spoke, Bobby’s hands roamed across his belly, even teasingly reaching up at a few points to cup his chest, figuring that by then, his body should have been preparing for feeding the children inside as well, though his chest had not changed in size at all yet. Gregory was eating up the attention, shivering softly at some of the warmer passes of fingers over his popped out belly button, and the touches that sank low on his stomach along his waistline, where his cock was already shamelessly hard with excitement from the attention. His finger pads felt nice along the hair on his stomach, brushing through the dual colored mix gently as Bobby felt the movement within.

“You must be excited,” Bobby pointed out with a small smile. “you get to be a parent like you always wanted now, right?” He asked, and Gregory gave a little nod, his thoughts trailing to the fact that it wasn’t his children growing within him. He was reminded of the ring still on his finger, and how at the end, he still planned on returning the horse couple’s children.

“Can I be their Uncle?” Bobby asked, leaning down to press a kiss to his belly. “I bet they’d like an Uncle Bobby, wouldn’t they?” He murmured to the little responding kick that came from deep within his hippo friend.

“Of course,” Gregory answered without thinking, knowing how happy that would make Bobby when he decided to use the ring to actually get pregnant. He wanted to choose the perfect pregnancy for that, not just a test to see how the ring really worked. But both of them knew that Gregory was too turned on to continue their little conversation, and teasingly, one of Bobby’s hands slipped down between his thick thighs to brush his fingers along his oil-slicked ring.

“Looks like you already got ready for me, hm?” He asked, sending a flush of red across Gregory’s cheeks, and without waiting for an answer, he dipped a finger into him, exploring just how loose Gregory had gotten himself before he’d arrived. It was a test to see if he needed to prepare the pregnant man any more than he already had, but after easily fitting a second finger in, scissoring it in him to test his elasticity, he decided he was already more than prepared for him. Gregory parted his legs with a soft moan at feeling Bobby’s fingertips brush against the sweet spot in him, and Bobby took that chance to hastily undo his pants, not even bothering to fully undress as he worked his jeans down. He’d already been hard for a few minutes, aroused by the sight of his friend’s gravid stomach, but as his pants and underwear were both pushed to his thighs, Gregory was treated with the sight of his sizable, thick member.

Bobby didn’t get right to it, instead teasingly slotting himself between his pregnant friend’s thighs, tucking his knees under the other’s legs to lift his hips enough for him to frot against him in a few slow grinds before he finally moved down. He took care in applying the oil to his own cock as well before he pressed the tip to Gregory’s tight pucker, giving a few test prods before he allowed it to sink into the heat of the hippo’s body, groaning aloud at the pressure around him from all angles. His hands rose to rest against his large belly once more when he was deep enough to not worry about slipping out, feeling Gregory squirm under him as he sank further and further in one smooth, but slow motion. The hippo’s head tilted back, his lips parting to let a shameless moan of delight slip free. It was the sensation he’d been craving all afternoon since he’d first started feeling those hormones kick in, and finally being filled with his friend’s cock made him feel almost hyper sensitive. He was throbbing just below the rise of his belly, and not wanting him to feel neglected, Bobby reached down to wrap his fingers around his member, giving it a squeeze but not stroking it just yet. He allowed the pregnant man to adjust to his size before he started moving, giving a few deep rolls of his hips and squeezing his member in time with that movement.

Once he was sure Gregory could handle it, he started moving with more momentum, pulling his hips back before he started rolling them back in, groaning as he watched the sight of his cock disappearing into his friend’s tight passage just beneath his heavy belly over and over again. In a way, it was almost easy to imagine himself as the one that had planted those babies in his friend’s stomach, and the thought made his pace pick up a little momentum, going as far as to start stroking the hippo in turn with each movement. Gregory was squirming under him, vocal with his soft grunts and sounds of delight each time Bobby sank into him, crying out each time the head of the elephant’s cock rammed against the sweet bundle of nerves in him that sent electric pleasure through him. Bobby could tell he wasn’t going to last long from the way Gregory’s body squeezed and tensed around him, but he wanted to see the hippo cum under him, focusing on ramming his prostate at just the right angle each time he found it from how much noise the man under him was making.

They continued at that hard pace, with Bobby making sure never to ram into him hard enough to jostle or hurt the babies within him, for several minutes. It pushed the hippo in a fervor of noise, everything a mixture of hasty pleasure from the cock ramming him and the hand stroking him until he finally could handle it no more, giving a cry out of Bobby’s name as he splattered his cum along the underside of his belly. Bobby followed just a few short thrusts after, grunting softly as he sank fully into his pregnant friend and filled him with spurt after spurt of heated, thick seed, his hands shaking against his heavy belly, stroking it in a few, slow motions as he emptied himself into the hippo’s tight passage entirely.

In the few moments of afterglow, Gregory knew exactly how he wanted to thank the elephant for how well he’d taken care of him in the height of his pregnancy need. After they both had a long moment to catch their breath and get cleaned up, Gregory gave him a pensive glance, before exhaling softly.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not pregnant naturally. I found this...strange woman in a shop yesterday, who gave me this. I’ve been able to ….borrow the pregnancies of others.” He held up the ring, shocking the elephant with the news—though the more the thought about it, the more he realized it hadn’t been that long since he’d last seen Gregory. Certainly not long enough for him to be nearly fully nine months pregnant. The story checked out. “And I know that you crave the feeling of pregnancy as much as I do,” Gregory added, slowly pulling the ring from his finger as he pressed it into Bobby’s palm. To his surprise, he didn’t immediately forget about it. He could only assume that its magic stayed as long as he was explaining it’s use, or if he was in some kind of proximity of it. “You can borrow it, to see what it feels like.”

It was a kind gesture, trusting his friend with it, and Bobby sat in awe as he pulled it onto one of his own fingers. “How do I make it work?”

“You want the pregnancy you see in someone else. Test it on me,” Gregory explained. Bobby’s gaze fell to his stomach, and he felt the small sensation of envy working through him, knowing that he also wanted to feel the same sense of magic that Gregory’s pregnancy had clearly given him. Suffering from the same infertility issues, he wanted nothing more in that moment to feel the same satisfaction of the children growing in Gregory in himself. To his shock, he could feel the changes come over him rather quickly. It was the same aches that Gregory had felt earlier that day, beginning low in his hips and ankles and gradually beginning to move up through his body as his muscles and insides started to shift and adapt to being capable of incubating children. It felt slightly different to Gregory, who had only given children back to others rather than having them taken from him by the ring instead, but it wasn’t a painful feeling.

As his own belly began to deflate slowly, the movement of the children stilling as they seemed to shrink within him, he watched the marvel work itself across Bobby’s face as he lifted his shirt up and off so he could watch his own hairy belly start to grow. It was a gradual process, but enlightening as he watched the first signs of pregnancy grow within him. He couldn’t feel the children in the early stages, but he could tell that there were certainly individual weights starting to develop within him as his belly started to stretch. Gradually, the strain of eight children made the elephant’s belly button pop out, which Gregory teasingly reached out to run his thumb over, admiring the feeling of the skin growing taut under his fingers with the children growing within him still. Quickly after, his chest started to pick up size, becoming softer as the muscles swelled into softer tissue, filling with the milk his body thought it would one day feed to the children inside of him.

While his own stretch marks from the pure strain of eight children started to develop, Gregory’s were disappearing, until finally, Gregory’s swollen belly and milky breasts had returned to precisely how they were before he’d been given the ring, and before their eyes, Bobby’s belly distended to the full size of being the expecting parent of eight anthro horse colts, exhausted from the days events and all shifting inside of him so they could get comfortable to sleep within him. Gregory could see that Bobby was nearly moved to tears at the sensation of finally having children within him, a dream he’d always had. With his jeans undone and his shirt off, the elephant was a sight to behold, swollen with the same children Gregory had just had within himself, and the hippo was more than happy to help his friend up so he could get a proper look at himself in the mirror.

The next few hours were filled with pampering the elephant through his borrowed pregnancy. With the extra set of hands, Bobby was able to give Gregory his phone so he could take dozens of pictures of his large belly, even going so far as to video Bobby rubbing his own belly and humming softly to the children within him. Even if they both know that it was technically pretend, it was a home video that Bobby would cherish being able to go back and watch to revisit the feelings he was having in that moment. Gregory also took advantage of having the opportunity to press his cheek and ear to the swell of belly, very faintly able to pick up the other heartbeats within his elephant friend, spoiling him with slow massages so he could get to experience the up close and personal attention of fawning over his pregnant friend as well. It was well into the night by the time Gregory sighed and suggested that it was time to send the children back to their parents. Reluctantly, Bobby handed over the ring, knowing he was about to lose the warm, full sensation of feeling new life grow within him. As much as Gregory hated to take that from him, he didn’t want to think of the nice horse couple who had been so excited to go maternity shopping to not have their colts.

Once wearing the ring again, Gregory wished for the pregnancy to return, and Bobby looked down to slowly see his swollen belly start to lessen. Because of his knowledge of the ring and his presence next to it, he didn’t forget that he’d ever been pregnant in the first place, and as the eight colts were slowly taken from his body and started to fill Gregory’s stomach once more, he began to hatch a plan. Now that he’d had a taste of what it was like to be an expecting parent, he didn’t plan on letting such an opportunity escape from him so quickly. Gregory leaned back against the headboard of his bed, one hand holding on to the ring around one finger, and the other sitting over his stomach as he gradually felt it fill out and stretch once more, making sure to place his palm over his belly button so he would feel the small popping sensation when it protruded out from his taunt, pregnant belly. Almost as quickly as he felt the transfer of the pregnancy finish, though, he wished it away before he could become too attached to the feeling. To his surprise, all it took was closing his eyes and thinking of the horse couple, wishing that the husband was pregnant once more, and he felt the changes begin to overcome him once more. He knew the longer he kept such a late pregnancy, the more at risk he was at accidentally going into labor with the babies, and he wasn’t sure if the pregnancy could be transferred once labor had begun. It wasn’t something he wanted to test, just in case.

He sighed softly, and almost wistfully, as he watched his belly start to sink under his hand, the protrusion lessening and the weight of the colts growing within him. Gregory rubbed slowly, as if bidding the unborn children goodbye, feeling the aches in his ankles and chest fade with the early signs of pregnancy from the rest of them, while Bobby watched the children fade from their lives with noticeable disappointment to see them go. His body seemed to be adjusting well to the borrowed and returned pregnancies, with each transition between his normal frame and the one capable of holding so many children becoming easier each time. Once his belly was back to its normal portly size, though, he gave a sigh of exhaustion as well from how long his day had been, and his weariness from the few hours they’d taken photos and videos of Bobby after he’d been so well fucked while pregnant himself. Before he could get too tired, though, Bobby leaned forward. “Do you think I could borrow the ring? Just for a day. I just want to try it out first hand.”

There’s a little reluctance, but Gregory knew that his friend loved the thought of being pregnant and pregnancy just as much as he did. He’d been his closest confidant in their joined kink for the longest time that depriving him of the chance felt...wrong. With a warm little smile, he pulled the ring from his finger and placed it in his friend’s hand once more. “Just bring it back before tomorrow night, okay? I’ve got plans for day after tomorrow for it.” Little did he know when he placed the ring into Bobby’s hands, Bobby had decided to do far more with it than ‘test’ it like Gregory. He wanted the full experience—pregnancy, children, parenthood. It was everything he had ever dreamed of and more, and when Gregory slid that ring into his palm, Bobby knew that it was all in hand. He didn’t care if they were elephants like him or not; at this point, he would happily raise any child carried to term in his body, and it was that simple to him. Gregory was even so kind as to lend Bobby a set of the maternity clothes that he’d bought earlier that day, knowing that to truly enjoy the experience, he’d want to be dressed comfortably while his body grew to accommodate children; fortunately, they were roughly the same size, and Bobby knew even folding them under his arm that they would fit like a charm.

The elephant tucked his hippo friend in for the night, wrapping him in his blankets and thanking him softly before he slipped from the door and his house to return home, the ring placed safely on his finger as he planned out the day to come.

 

\---

When he woke the next day, Bobby had to look to his hand and the ring on his dresser to remember that it hadn’t all been some kind of fantastic dream. Still a bit sleepy, barely able to actually rest for how excited he was for what was to come, he dressed in the maternity clothes he’d borrowed from Gregory, still on their snuggest adjustments around his portly, nonpregnant frame. He knew before the end of the day, that would be far different.

After breakfast, his plan was relatively straightforward. He had decided to wait in his car outside of an “expecting mother” yoga class, knowing that even until the very end of their pregnancies, many mothers tried to keep fit for their children and to make their deliveries either. After watching three classes come and go, with pregnant men and women of all ages and species wandering in and out, he finally laid his eyes on the perfect target. He was starting to become a little worried that no one going in and out of the yoga classroom would fit his needs, but the moment he laid eyes on one of the patrons leaving, he was absolutely convinced that he had found the perfect target to take his future children from.

A swollen, barely mobile lioness was leaving the classroom, clearly trying to do anything she could to keep herself active under the weight of what Bobby estimated could be no less than ten children. He had realized that no one seemed to notice him while he was wearing the ring by then, so it was without concern that he moved out of his car and sat on a bench nearby, focusing on the lioness leaving the gym then, and wishing, badly, that her children were his own instead-- that he could feel the rotund swell of her belly as his own, and craving nothing more than to feel so much life growing inside of him instead. Almost immediately, he let out a soft, quiet groan as he felt his body start to ache.

Instead of any concern or fear, he knew it was simply one of the many side effects that came with being so pregnant. He could only imagine that it was lion cubs growing within her, but the elephant was hardly concerned; all he wanted was to make sure that he had as many children growing in him as possible, and she was the biggest expecting parent that he had seen all day in his waiting. One by one, he could swear he could feel the children growing within him; from the warmth and the different way they settled in his body, as well as the way his stomach felt just a little lumpy in some places from a child laying a different way, he could only assume that he was absolutely right in his estimate of ten children. Whether it was just because their mother had been in a yoga class, or the odd transition from one body to another, they were all active and kicking, and Bobby gave a soft, warm laugh as he felt them kick and wriggle in him as they grew alongside his size.

“Oh, happy to be with your new father already?” he mumbled softly to them, pulling up his maternity shirt enough to watch his hairy belly grow with new life. A peek up to the lioness showed her unconcerned, not even realizing that her stomach was flattening out slowly. If anything, she looked a little proud of how loose her clothing was, clearly thinking she was in the gym because she was trying to slim down—and the large clothing made her feel like it must be working. The stretch marks were starting across his belly, but they were starting to branch up slowly too to his chest, where the muscle was softening again and filling with both milk and softer fat to give the children something to latch onto behind his nipple. He finally had to reach down and unhinge the snaps to his maternity pants, with his belly growing too big too quickly for them to contain it. He would refasten it to their largest size when he was done growing, but for now he was treated to his own, private show of his pregnancy progressing how it would in nine months in only the span of a few minutes. It was something he had the forethought to grab his phone for, recording every second of his belly growing and growing, along with the subtle little kicks from within it.

Anyone who watched the video later who didn’t have any sense of what the ring was or did would simply think it was a masterfully crafted photo-collage video of the same clothes and pose taken for several months instead of a pregnancy progressing in only the span of about ten minutes. He gasped in delight when his belly button, around the seventh month pregnant size, finally popped out with the children within him taking up too much space for it to stay an innie belly button any longer. The lioness was now back to her normal size, and didn’t seem to be any the wiser that she had ever been pregnant at all, going on her way to get in her car and leave, sealing Bobby’s decision to keep and deliver the children now inside him. He nearly wobbled when he stood, barely able to snap the maternity pants up, and even after he pulled the maternity shirt down, a couple of inches of his stomach was still visible, which only excited him further, since he was able to show it off to his heart’s content.

It was almost difficult to drive back to his hippo friend’s home, with how far out his belly sat against the steering wheel at the max distance, but he drove as slowly as possible to be careful. When he knocked on the door, Gregory seemed genuinely surprised to see him so pregnant while returning the ring. “You don’t want to give it back, first?”

Bobby shook his head. “I decided to appreciate the miracle the ring gives. There would never be a chance for me to get pregnant on my own, so if I was able to take it from someone else, that means they can just go get pregnant again, right? I want my own children to raise, Greg. I might have taken these from a lioness, but no matter what they come out as, they’re going to be my kids.” He gave a smile, clearly happier in that moment than he’d been in years. Gregory could see his reasoning, too, and gave a little laugh.

“If that’s what makes you happy, Bobby, I know you’ll be a good dad.” He slipped the ring back on his own finger for safe keeping, watching as the elephant turned to waddle back towards his car. Even as he was stepping away, Gregory could hear him mumbling softly while rubbing his belly, telling his children that he was going to be excited to meet them whenever they decided to come into the world with him—but he knew from sheer size alone and how his nipples kept wanting to make their milk that it would be very soon. Gregory couldn’t find it in him to begrudge the elephant for deciding to keep one of the pregnancies; he’d made a good point about those couples just being able to conceive again.

Only when the elephant was pulling out of his driveway did the hippo realize that it wasn’t even two in the afternoon yet—he had plenty of time to go act on the plan that he’d been working on for most of the morning since Bobby had borrowed the ring. Though he didn’t quite have the same plan as Bobby to find a pregnancy to keep, he was just as interested in finding and trying out the biggest pregnancy he could. Unlike Bobby, however, he had the somewhat more clever idea of waiting right outside of the office of a local OBGYN that was known for their outstanding prenatal care. It was connected to the local hospital, making it easy access for most new parents if they needed to go over to intensive care for any complications as well. Here, he had a bit more success than Bobby had had outside of the gym; within only an hour of waiting, a hippo that didn’t look too far off from Gregory’s own appearance albeit perhaps ten years younger left the office, barely able to walk for his sheer size. He was so large that not even Gregory, an expert on pregnancy, could begin to guess the number of children that were growing within him. He knew in that moment that it was the largest pregnancy that he’d ever seen—and that he absolutely wanted to experience it as well. Unlike Bobby, though, he didn’t leave his car.

That was precisely why he didn’t hear the next words to leave the hippos mouth. As he stepped from the office to take a short break on the bench outside, the hippo rubbed his belly, giving a little grin. “Your parents are going to be happy to hear that you’re all doing so well. They’ve been so worried about your Uncle Joseph, carrying all of you for them. I told them that you’re not too much trouble at all, but I still think they never expected all of their eggs to take.” Joseph gave a soft laugh, rubbing his belly and knowing that each of his nieces and nephews inside were doing just fine. “Maybe a human like them wouldn’t be able to handle it, but I told them that hippos are very durable, you see.”

Gregory could hear nothing of what the other hippo was saying, only seeing him sitting there rubbing his belly and mumbling softly to the children growing within. Because of his size, he had no idea that he was also a couple of weeks past due with fifteen human children that he was incubating as a surrogate for his two human friends. He did, however, know that he wanted to feel that pregnant—more than even Bobby had managed to find for himself, and he’d been just a little jealous that his elephant friend had managed to find such a sizable little to take from the lion couple. So, focusing in on the other hippo, he took a deep breath, kicked back the seat to his relax, and wished that he, too, could have the expansive pregnancy that the other hippo was clearly thrilled with and enjoying. Trying to quash that jealousy, he instead yearned for it, and as it had with every other pregnancy so far, the ring began to glow softly and work its magic.

Though the smile did not fade from Joseph’s features, he looked up, watching the skies instead, and enjoying the sight of the clouds passing by. It was an immediate distraction from the fact that almost immediately, a decrease in the size of his stomach became a little more evident. While he had been so focused on talking to the children in him in moment, he didn’t even seem to acknowledge them the next. Gregory knew that it was the ring’s magic, but he was too focused on the sensations starting in him to pay much attention to it. Exhaling slowly, he shuddered as he felt the soreness start to ebb into the filling sensation as he felt the children start to take form and grow within him.

None of the prior pregnancies had had nearly as many children incubating as the one that he had in him now. In a way that was both exciting and startling, and it wasn’t something he was entirely sure he was fully prepared for, but he was willing to take every risk involved. With the seat kicked back and his shirt pulled up, he watched in quiet amazement as the swelling of his belly started. It was insignificant at first, like one might expect out of a single pregnancy, but the combined bodies of the children swiftly went from him looking a few months pregnant with one to several months pregnant with multiples—even in the stages of only three months along in the rapid pregnancy. Even early on, he was aware that he was going to be just as large as the other hippo had been, but he had the practicality to admit that maybe Joseph was bigger than he had initially realized at a distance. He groaned softly, and at the five month mark, he was already as large as he had been with the ten horse colts with the fifteen humans growing within him. It was an immense pressure, and early on as he let his hands wander along his swelling belly, he felt his belly button pop rather quickly. It stood like a bump on his rapidly growing, exercised ball sized stomach, poking out proud and large on the very tip of it from how he had laid back in his seat.

Though he had set his maternity pants early on to the maximum size, as he just kept growing as the months progressed in the span of minutes, he was surprised to feel the sudden tension in the elastic—before without warning, the button on the pants popped off entirely, pinging against his windshield and leaving his pants hanging open. It didn’t make much of a difference, since his rising stomach simply grew to the point where the pants were pushed low on his hips and far away form his bulbous, huge belly.

This time, however, there was a noticeable difference for him than the prior pregnancies. Though Bobby had experienced the growth of breasts with the horse pregnancy, it was only now that Gregory himself began to feel that swelling as well. Lifting his shirt higher, he watched in surprise as the muscles of his pectorals softened and swelled like two soft water balloons, but he knew if he were to squeeze or pinch those sensitive, puffy nipples on his chest, he would be producing milk on the spot. The other hippo was much further in this pregnancy than he had realized, and that both excited and made him nervous as he finally looked out to the one on the bench. Now, despite how loose his clothing was hanging, Joseph didn’t seem to even recall ever coming to sit outside of the hospital. He looked around, his body back to normal size as if he’d never been pregnant in the first place, rolling his shoulders in a shrug as he stood to walk off. The transfer of the pregnancy was completed; Gregory wasn’t even sure if he could stand at that point, his belly sticking out over five times larger than he had ever been with the other borrowed pregnancies.

Just as he realized just how close the hippo had been to going into labor, he looked up to see Joseph wandering off in the distance, confused as to why he was outside of the OBGYN if he wasn’t pregnant—and why his clothing had gotten so stretched out in the meanwhile. Gregory realized it would probably be best to return that particular pregnancy quickly—but as he went to go wish on the ring again, before his eyes, it crumbled into dust. The children were not only stuck within him now, but they were now his responsibility and his children as well. As the last shreds of the ring’s dust drifted away through the car, he was left confused, holding his clearly pregnant belly with no recollection of how he had gotten pregnant—just that he was pregnant. Very pregnant.

The ring was gone, and with it, any memory of him having ever used it to test the delight of pregnancy over the last few days—but the videos and pictures would stay with him for a lifetime. His hands were subconsciously rubbing across his distended stomach, quietly admiring the activity of the copious children within, sitting in his confusion for the time being. Just as quickly as he realized how gravid he was though, he felt a sharp, breathtaking pain rip through him. It was followed immediately by another, a series of powerful cramps working through him. It took only a few precious moments to realize why: he was going into labor, and he had no way to deliver the children that were moving around inside him. Opening the door, he cried out, tears in his eyes as he stopped one of the nurses on their breaks. Fortunately, being right next to the hospital, they were able to call the ambulance to move him around from the OBGYN office straight to the emergency room.

As they wheeled him in, the doctors crowded around him, surprised to see the size of his belly as they asked him what was going on.

“I’m in labor, but I don’t know how I’m going to give birth.” he sobbed, the intense pain of the cramps almost too much to bear. Immediately, looks of surprise worked across the doctor’s expressions, unable to understand how a man with no other augmentations was carrying children—but from the movement within him, none of them doubted that he was, in fact, heavily pregnant. To their confusion, it was the same issue that another patient who had just been wheeled in was going through. Bobby had beaten Gregory to the emergency room by only a few minutes, and was also being attended to in the same room they wheeled Gregory to. The two looked at each other in shock, neither of them remembering how they had gotten pregnant in the first place with how the ring had crumbled away. Both could overhear a few of the nurses speculating—why would they be pregnant at seventy, an age well after most people stopped having children? How had they even gotten pregnant?

With no way of naturally giving birth to the babies, the doctors were faced with only one choice: emergency cesarean sections for the both of them. They were wheeled into an operated room, though neither were given the option of local anesthesia to stay away for the c-section; they were both far too high risk to stay awake for the procedure, considering just how big their stomachs were, and how many children they needed to extract from both. With a slight poke to the elbow, both Bobby and Gregory were put under; it was only then that the doctors were able to clean their stomachs and start making careful incisions.

They had to work carefully, both due to the size of their bellies, but also so they didn’t hurt any of the children in the double-multiple extraction. While they could rough estimate how many children were in Bobby with a quick, detailed ultrasound, the hippo’s pregnancy had too many children to determine, and it was slightly confusing to see the outlines of children that were neither elephant nor hippo on both of their scans. It was more shocking when the first children were pulled from the cuts in the c-section in Bobby’s stomach; perfectly healthy, a small anthro lion cub boy squirmed in the doctor’s hands until they took care of cleaning him up and setting him aside for the nurses to tag and place in the begs they had pulled from the natal unit.

Nearby, even more of the local doctors were shocked when, one by one, they began to free human infants from Gregory’s pregnant stomach. One by one, four girls, and five boys were pulled carefully from Bobby’s body. Each one of them bore the distinct feature of pure lion cubs; there was no sign of elephant, and judging from their patterning and features, all of the cubs were of the same two parents. Full blooded lions, and no one had a single clue how they might have gotten within the elephant, considering he had no medical records for surrogacy or any kind of womb or egg implants. He was, for all intents and purposes, a medical mystery, though he handled the slow delivery of child after child rather well for being unconscious for it.

Gregory’s delivery was a little more complicated. The first five children, three boys and a girl, went smoothly. It was the next set of five that were a little more complicated, considering two of the umbilical cords of two more little girls had gotten tangled at some point, making it a slow, careful procedure to untangle them without catching any more of the children in the uncomfortable positioning the others had gotten themselves wound in. After another boy, followed by two more girls, the doctors were beginning to go into uncharted territory of not knowing how many children were actually caught up within the expansive womb that the ring had left the man with. It was a careful extraction in which they found two more boys, but could tell from both the state of his womb and the rise to his stomach that they weren’t quite finished just yet. Because of how much extra skin was left from how distended it had been, it took a little bit of searching, but they finally produced another boy from the cesarean section, one girl, and if they hadn’t of done one last sweep of his womb, they would have missed the tiniest one, another little girl, deep within the hippo’s belly. Only when they were certain that they had delivered all fifteen of his miraculous, human children did they move to stitch him up just as they had with Bobby, leaving both of the men in the recovery room to slowly let their anesthesia wear off. They were out for a little over a day, so the nurses were comfortable to let them pump a little breast milk first, making sure it didn’t have any lingering medication from the anesthesia in it, before they started bringing their children over to them after they came to full consciousness. The infants had been fed a bit of hospital formula to tide them over until their parents were conscious after their c-section again, but as each of the men looked them over, stunned at the innocence and beauty of the children that they had carried for such a brief time but had brought into the world, they were both hit with the magnitude of the fact they were fathers.

The hippo remembered the almost disapproving comments made by the nurses just before they had gone under the effects of the anesthesia, and in the moments of seeing the innocent, resting faces of each of his children before he brought them to his breasts to nurse from his swollen breasts for the very first time, they knew that they had no regret in bringing the children into the world, despite their age. They had finally found the missing pieces in their lives; with Bobby’s new ten anthro lion children, and Gregory’s fifteen human babies, they knew they would never look over their empty homes and wish for fulfillment again. The children were cycled out one by one to nurse from their new parents, and both men were grateful for the fact that their large, milky chests seemed to have plenty of each of the babies as they were introduced, two at a time, by the nurses bringing them over.

While still in the hospital, Gregory and Bobby both poured over baby magazines and shopping catalogs that their friends, confused but encouraging, brought for them to order from. All at once, their friends were more than happy to go out for them, taking them on video calls while they went through baby and maternity stores to help pick up things to make sure their house would be ready; giving a few of their friends their house keys, both men were elated when they were eventually released from the hospital to find that the spare bedrooms in their homes had been converted into nurseries catered to every whim they had expressed while still admitted with their children. It had nearly brought tears to Gregory’s eyes to see that every single crib set up with their own sets of clothes and color coordinated, with a different shade in fifteen colors so he would never have to worry about keeping up with different children’s clothing—at least, he wouldn’t have to worry about it until the children were all old enough to start borrowing and stealing one another’s things.

 ---

As the years passed, that time seemed to come almost too soon for the two fathers. It wasn’t uncommon for them to spend afternoons at each other’s houses, letting their children grow up around one another—even if was a little alarming to see how rowdy Bobby’s mini-pride of lions could get, but they learned from a relatively young age that they had to be a little more careful with Gregory’s human children than they were with their lion brothers and sisters. Rough housing was common in the elephant’s house, but in a way, that didn’t scare Bobby. He knew that lion cubs needed to stay active, even if that meant tumbling and play fighting among themselves. There was never an real danger, since they all knew that if they took it too far or anyone got truly hurt, they’d be in quite a bit of trouble. Gregory wasn’t worried about them either; he knew that his own children were surprisingly sturdy for humans; part of him wondered if it was because he’d giving birth to them rather than a normal human couple, though he tried not to think too much on the fact that none of them still had any idea of how he’d had his children. All that mattered to him was the fact that they were his, undoubtedly.

Near the beginning of summer, Gregory had the brilliant idea of putting in a massive pool in his back yard, just so that his own children and the lion children could get a little relief from the dry, obnoxiously warm summers. Though it had taken a few weeks, with his human children now all around six years old, constantly poking their heads out of the windows of the back of the house and distracting the construction workers that had come to put the pool in. He had to make sure that it would be big enough to comfortably let fifteen children—who would grow up with it into fifteen young adults—swim in it, and then some.

But now, after several weeks of tense waiting from all of the children, well into June and with the temperature only climbing, Gregory’s pool was finally finished. It was like cutting the ribbon at some kind of grand ceremony—Bobby had brought over plenty of bags of groceries so they could do a full cook out to celebrate, and both men were laughing as they barely managed to keep the children back from bursting around them to be the first ones in the freshly treated, beautiful water.

But both parents wanted to be absolutely sure that their sons and daughters were able to handle the first time they’d be actually swimming at one of their homes. While trips to the public pool and beach weren’t rare, with each father making sure to take all of the kids out somewhere fun whenever they watched or sat each other’s children, they were very strict on safety-- that was why each of the children had arm floaties safely wrapped around their upper arms, with the worse swimmers also getting pool noodles and waist floaters. The construction workers had done a wonderful job, giving him a pool that was more like a small pond on the sizable property behind his home. He knew he’d be calling them again for the house expansion he had planned, just so he could give his children more rooms to grow up in and more space for the family overall.

Once everyone’s safety devices were in place, the two gather’s grinned and finally opened the sliding glass door that lead back to Gregory’s brand new patio, and the children all rushed out, with cheers and shouts of joy starting as they bee lined straight for the water. While some of the more cautious ones took careful steps down the ladders and steps into the pool, the more foolhardy and excited ones were more than happy to jump straight in, with some more of the reckless ones shouting for joy as they cannon balled and dove into the water.

“Is this a new grill?” Bobby asked, impressed as he moved over to the custom fire pit and cook area the builders had made for Gregory. The hippo puffed up with a bit of pride, smirking as he noticed the marveling, impressed look on the elephants face.

“Yep. And since I’m such a good friend, I’ll let you break it in.” He teased, carrying in some of the bags that Bobby had brought with him. While the hippo liked to keep his human kids on a fairly balanced meal of veggies as well as meat, he could see a lot of steak, hamburgers, and hot dogs also piled into the bags. He could only assume the steak was for the anthro lion children who were having just as much fun as the human children wrapped up in the water, some splashing and wrestling already. Despite the elephant’s normal diet, Bobby was rather good at adjusting to his children’s need for higher meat contents as growing predators. In the meantime, while Bobby got the grill going and began to lay out the meat to start grilling, Gregory moved to start setting up the rest of the table with finger foods and snacks, carefully swatting a few reaching hands to remind them that if they ate or snuck food, they wouldn’t be allowed to swim for thirty minutes following it. That warning was enough to make the jaws drop on a few of the human children, who scurried off quickly to get in as much swimming at they could before they knew that all of them would be called for lunch. The two fathers joked about the approaching school year; since they had so many children, they’d swiftly come to rely on letting the school bus pick their kids up, and only recently, Bobby had also moved into the same neighborhood so their children could ride together and go to the same school.

“I guess you’ll be seeing a lot more of my brood with this new pool, huh?” Bobby teased, faking as if he was offended that his children would prefer his friend’s house than their own. Gregory scoffed and gave a playful swat to his arm, going so far as to roll his eyes.

“You know that you’re welcome over to swim just as much, Bobby.” He replied, spreading out a few bags of chips onto plates on his patio table, just because he knew it would be easier for the children to grab what they wanted off of the display plates instead of trying to pour an even amount from the bag. The meat was cooking fast, and he could see the excited swish of tails from Bobby’s lion children. They liked it on the rarer side, but Bobby always took care to make sure it was cooked enough to kill any germs or bacteria. Gregory’s own kids were getting restless and hungry now, too-- they were picking up the scent of hot dogs and hamburgers that were being made for them, and though so many of them were still playing loudly in the pool, at least five of them were pulling themselves out of the pool to go towel dry off so they’d get first choice on the condiments and chips. Though Gregory had gotten a variety, there were always a couple of flavors that wound up disappearing first. The children that got out of the pool early were more than willing to sacrifice a bit of play time in the beginning for their choice of food. After all, they knew the pool was permanent, and they’d be able to go swimming whenever they wanted—while the Sweet Heat BBQ chips were in a limited quantity and would be gone the minute they turned their backs, probably. So, before they even called out to let the group know that the food was ready, four of the lion cubs and five of the human children had already lined up neatly, knowing that they were going to get first dibs on everything their fathers laid out for the group to come and eat from.

Both the hippo and the elephant laughed at that. Though humans could be far more picky than either of them, neither of them could deny that they were both doing their best to accommodate children that neither of them had thought would be possible to ever have—much less of two different species from their own. Despite those differences, though, both of them were happy with how well their children were growing up together, even if they thought they were a bit odd at times. Bobby knew that this would be far from the last cookout that Gregory let him do on his brand new patio, and Gregory was more than happy to let the elephant cook as often as he liked—as long as he kept bringing so much food for all twenty five of their miracle children to enjoy.

Neither remembered the ring that had let them take their pregnancies, but even if they did, neither of them would regret it. The woman in the shop had been right about it giving Gregory everything that he could have ever hoped for—but Bobby had been lucky enough to be blessed by it as well.


End file.
